Learning to Play Mah Jong

I am learning to play Mah Jong. I have been curious and wanted to know how to play this game since reading Amy Tam's books. The version we play is an Americanized version which is not played exactly the same way as the Chinese version. There is a lot of jargon to learn as well as rules, and though you have to plan and think with this game (which I like) it is also a game of chance like all games are. Both Averill and I had a "teacher" helping us play each game. There will be many more teaching games which we play slowly, until I am ready to play in a fast moving group. Especially since you have to pay the winner of each game!